11-1-11 Cubberley Process

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City of Palo Alto (ID # 2249)City Council Staff Report

Report Type: Action ItemsMeeting Date: 11/1/2011

November 01, 2011 Page 1 of 7

(ID # 2249)

Summary T itle: Cubberley Process

Title: Staff Recommendation for a Process and Timeline Addressing the Citys

and Palo Alto Unified School Districts (PAUSD) Interest in the Cubberley Campus

and Adjacent Properties

From: City Manager

Lead Department: City Manager

Recommendation

Staff recommends that Council discuss the Cubberley process proposed by the City Manager

and adopt a process and timeline.

Executive Summary

A lease and agreement executed almost 25 ago years has provided for Cubberleys continuous

community use. The Cubberley campus houses many existing uses and constituencies in

buildings owned by the City and the School District. These uses provide important benefits

including the communitys use of the playing fields, child care, art studios and non profit spaces.

The lease and agreement will expire in 2014 unless the option is mutually agreed to by both the

City and the School District. The School Boards recent action that it needs all of the property at

Cubberley, has thrown the City and the District (and by extension the community) into

definitive scenario planning for Cubberley over the next 14 months, as recommended by staff.

This report proposes a process and timeline for addressing these challenges

Background

At the City Council meeting of July 11, 2011, Council considered Foothill/DeAnza Community

College Districts proposal to purchase the City owned eight acre site, a part of the 35 acreCubberley campus. While Council declined Foothill/DeAnzas offer to purchase the Citys eight

acres and build an education center, Council directed staff to propose a process to manage the

discussion between Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), the City, Cubberley stakeholders

and the community at large for the future of the Cubberley campus. This report provides staffs

recommended process for initiating and continuing a joint discussion between PAUSD, the City


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and the community.

Councils July 11th

action also included specific staff direction for the exploration of several

Cubberley related land use, community service and financial issues including the following

issues and questions:

1. Sharing of Costs with PAUSD for site planning and needs assessments.

2. Potential re-development of the Citys 8 acres to accommodate community uses.

3. Should the City and District extend the lease beyond the December 2013 lease

renewal deadline?

4. What is the future for joint use of the playing fields should the lease not be

extended?

5. What are the implications of terminating the lease and covenant not to develop,

particularly financial impacts to City and PAUSD of the $7.06M the City is currently

paying the district for Fiscal Year 12?

Discussion

1. Collaborative PAUSD and City Process and Timeline on Cubbereley:

Staff proposes an initial 14 month process which anticipates reaching City and PAUSD

consensus on a Cubberley Master Plan by the end of 2012. Such a Master Plan may include

alternative scenarios.

The process would involve a Technical Advisory Committee, a Policy Advisory Committee, and

a Community Advisory Committee. .

A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) working group will be established, co-chaired by the

City Manager and Superintendent, focusing on developing the technical foundations for

eventual policy decision making. TAC members would also include City departmental

respresentatives including Community Services, Adminstrative Services, Planning, Attorneys

Office and Public Works, and their PAUSD counterparts.

Much of the TACs work will occur early in the process and will establish the technicalfoundations necessary to eventually develop and evaluate preliminary use scenarios. The

School Districts facility growth needs as well as the Citys community cultural, social and

recreational demands will be quantified during this initial phase. The TAC will most likely

require some technical expertise not available within the existing organizations. This could

include, for example, architecture and site planning, construction cost estimating and space

planning. In addition to completing the data collection and analytical work, the TAC will also


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identify some general scenarios to assist in focusing subsequent planning discussions.

Estimated Timeline: November 2011 to March 2012.

A Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) is proposed to be comprised of two PAUSD Boardmembers

and three City Councilmembers appointed by the Mayor and Board President. TheCommittees work will be advisory to eachs respective Board and Council. Staff envisions the

PACs work to begin soon after the completion of the staffs foundational work in March 2012.

Staff envisions the PAC working under guiding principles adopted by the City Council and the

School District. Operating withing the guiding principles, the PAC will provide general policy

direction to staff to assist in the development of possible use/re-use strategies the TAC will be

working on over the rest of 2012. The PAC members will also serve as intermediaries between

the respective governing bodies and staff and will be expected to report back to the Council

and the Board. The PACs mission will be to forward a recommendation to the Council and

Board for a Cubberley Scenarios Master Plan.

Estimated Timeline: April 2012 to January 2013

A Community Advisory Committee (CAC) will be a cross section group of community

stakeholders (15 to 20 members). For example, the CAC could have representatives from

adjacent neighborhoods (i.e. Greenmeadow and Charleston Terrace), city-wide groups such as

PAN, Charleston Plaza, PTAs, Cubberley tenants, recreation users and sports leagues, and

liaison members from appropriate City and School District boards, commissions and

committees.

The CACs principle function will be to provide feedback to staff and the PAC on use/re-use

scenarios. Initial ideas will be drafted and tested with community members to help refineconcepts to a point where a consensus Scenarios Master Plan is developed and can be

considered by the School Board and Council. The CAC is expected to work concurrently with

the PAC schedule.

Estimated Timeline: April 2012 to January 2013


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2011

Nov

2012 2013

January

2013

Dec

Complete datacollection and

general site

planning

constraints &

opportunities

Technical Advisory Committee:

Build Technical Formulations,

Identify Data & Needs, Develop

Initial Scenarios. Includes timing

factor

Technical Advisory

Committee; Policy Advisory

Committee; Community

Advisory Committee:

Selects Scenarios, Test and

Review AlternativesComplete

Master Plan

Scenarios.

Adoption

Lease Options Review (process

and structure to be determined)

Decision

on

RenewalOptions

Joint City/PAUSD

Cubberley Timeline


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2. Resources and Cost Sharing:

As discussed above, specialized expertise not available with either the Citys of School Districts

organization may be needed. Consulting services could include: architecture and site Planning,

school and housing growth projections, and real estate appraisers. Staffs preliminary cost of all

services could reach $150,000. This level of funding includes the potential work thoughtout

2012 (not just during the initial technical period). Councils July 11, 2011 motion requested that

costs be shared equally between the District and the City. The District has agreed to an equal

sharing of these expenses.

3. Issues regarding re-opening Cubberley as school site (examples)

School Popluation Growth: The Councils July 11 motion identified several key issues

associated with the potential re-opening of the Cubberley campus as a PAUSD school site(s).The formost of these questions concern school population growth and the size and number of

additional facilities need to accommodate that anticipated growth. While PAUSD is working on

refining its growth projections, a firm idea of future facility needs has not been established at

this time and will be necessary.

The Citys 8 acres: As the Council is aware, the City owns 8 acres of the Cubberley campus

generally located on the north eastern corner of the campus. The District has the right to re-

purchase the 8 acres only if the the City were to offer it for sale to another party. The Citys 8

acres will be a significant element in addressing tenant displacement should the district require

the remaining 27 acres for school facility expansion.

525 San Antonio: Since the Councils July meeting, PAUSD is in final negotiations to complete

the purchase of the 2.5 acre site adjacent to Greendale School. Staff believes that 525 San

Antonio is a important land asset that should be included in the overall Cubberley Master Plan

efforts.

Re-use or Rebuild: The City has good estimates regarding Cubberleys long term maintenanceneeds, but very litte research has been done to evaluate whether or not re-use or building

replacement will be the most economically sensible options for re-use. Typically buildings of

Cubberleys age and condition generally are substantially non-conforming and typically require

substantial remodeling in order to come up to minumum present day standards. These areimportant issues if the City holds onto the 8 acres as a community center site. It is also

important should the school district seek to acquire it at some point in the future.

4. The Citys 8 Acres:

It is unclear as to the Districts need for the entire 35 acre site for school expansion. This should


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be one of the first foundational issues for the staff team to clarify. If the City decides to retain

its ownership of the 8 acres, and keep it in community use, the City will want to know how

many of the displaced tenants can be accommodated. Are two story buildings needed? How

can such costs be funded? This is true even for the growing maintenance costs of the existing

facilities. The City will also want to know how two story buildings will be configured to maintain

compatibility with the adjacent neighborhood.

5. Playing Fields:

Over the term of the Cubberley lease, the City has enjoyed exclusive use of the extensive

playing fields and other sports facilities on the site. Neighbors have grown accustomed to the

access to these valuable resources. Sports and programmed recreation space is always a

premimum in Palo Alto. Therefore as significant questions must be addressed regarding the

potential joint use of the playing fields should the District re-open schools. As the Council is

aware, the City and the District jointly use Middle School fields but the same arrangement does

not exist for High Schools.

The Naylor Act protects playing fields and open spaces provided by School Districts when a

school site is closed and offered for alternate uses or private development. The Cubberley site

will not be subject to the Naylor Act if PAUSD takes back the site for school purposes and will

only apply if the property is sold to a third party.

6. Lease Options (2013)

The staff report suggests a two-stage process, with Cubberley Scenario Master Planning

occurring through 2012 and a second stage on Lease Options beginning in 2013 (AFTER) the

groundwork has been laid through actual scenario plans for the use of Cubberley. It seems thatdiscussion of the lease renewal question will be best informed by completing scenario planning

for Cubberleyto take discussions out of the realm of vague or theoretical, to more realistic

and specific. At this point in time, staff recommends that Council defer decisions on the specic

process and review structure until 2013.

Extension of the Cubberley Lease and Covenant beyond 2014 requires the mutual consent of

the City and School District (practically) before the end of 2013. If the lease and covenant are

terminated, the City would no longer obligated to make its roughly (the lease payments are

regularly adjusted for inflation) $7.06M (Fiscal Year 12) annual payments to the District. The

Council July motion indicated that lease money should be earmarked to support communityand recreational services. Moreover, loss of lease payments represents a sizable budget

reduction to PAUSD.

Questions the City may have concerning the continuation of the lease will include what

alternate uses could the $7.06M annual lease payments support in addition to community

services. The Council may be aware that the Infrastruction Blue Ribbon Commission has


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discussed the potential of directing the Cubberley money to support the Citys infrastructure

needs. The City may also question the need to continue to pay the District to not develop its

current school sites, with the need for sites and future planning a key Distruict concern today.

Conditions have changed dramatically since the late 1980s when school population was in

decline. Lastly, the City and the District will need to resolve the management of Cubberley on a

temporary basis should the lease revert back to the District in 2014 before the District is notfully ready to rebuild the school facilities it may need in the future.

Resource Impact

Staff impacts can be addressed at current staffing levels. However, an outside expert will need

to be engaged at a cost of up to $150,000.

Prepared By: Steve Emslie, Deputy City Manager

Department Head: James Keene, City Manager

City Manager Approval: James Keene, City Manager

Documents

11-1-11 Cubberley Process